Sonia Blount (30), a mother of a three-year-old boy from Colbertsfort, Tallaght, Dublin 24 was found dead in a room at the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght on February 16, this year.

Thirty-one year old Eric Locke of St John’s Park East, Clondalkin, is currently before the courts charged with her murder.

At the opening of the inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court, Ms Blount’s father Christopher Blount told the coroner that he identified the body of his daughter at Tallaght Hospital shortly before 4pm on February 17.

State pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy carried out the post-mortem. Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the family that her preliminary report gives the cause of death as “asphyxia due to compression of the neck and suffocation”.

Detective Inspector John Walsh confirmed that a person is before the courts charged with the murder and applied for an indefinite adjournment of the inquest to allow criminal proceedings to take place.

Dr Farrell offered his sympathies to the family and told them that he is aware of some of the circumstances of the death but is unable to comment while criminal proceedings are ongoing.

The inquest was adjourned without a date until the criminal trial is completed.